Aliens: Colonial Marines

I remember when this game was supposed to be using the Brothers in Arms engine, but I guess that's changed in the past five years. Never was a huge fan of that engine, so here's hoping this one is built using a different one.

Say, whatever happened to the Rule of Biehn™?

Smooth-shaven = goodie, facial hair = baddie. But what's happened? Did I just dream this rule? Was he not evil in Jade? Does he even have a 'stache in Dragon Squad??

It used to be so simple -- Biehn and Paxton working as a team, the rest of the universe sleeping easy...

I want this game so much right now! That looked awesome!

I'm with you Spike, I'm not sure why the makers feel the need to tie this directly into Cameron's Aliens, as any casual fan would likely hardly be bothered to care about the story connections leaving the hard-core fans to get all nit-picky about the continuity problems. Eh, marketing is a strange beast.

Anyway, on topic, it's a cool looking trailer. Hopefully they keep they can keep a high level of tension throughout the game and keep the xenomorphs feeling constantly formidable and dangerous. Some of my fondest FPS memories are the first few levels of the AvP2 marine campaign on the PC and constantly jumping and firing wildly at any blip on my motion detector.

However, I've been really burned out on FPS's in the last few years and nothing I've seen out of this game so far has really grabbed my attention. I'm not hoping for it to be shit by any means, I just can't make myself look forward to it.

AvP2 was a lot of fun.  The first bit of the Marines campaign is definitely a highlight though. So much freaking tension and atmosphere was going on during that section, keeping you really on edge.  I also like the multiplayer in that game. Playing a game where one person gets to be an Alien or a Predator picking people off while everyone else teams up to hunt them down never got old, especially when playing in the same room over a LAN. There are few things that can top making somebody actually jump in their chair because you jumped out in front of them in-game.

I honestly don't understand why the developers felt the need to tie this in to 'Aliens'...I've YET to hear a story that makes sense...

New trailer http://www.fearnet.com/news/b23609_irsquom_all_out_of_quotes_aliens.html

The story won't make sense but it will be GLORIOUS!!!!

Looks real good. As far as the story goes, they could've done a prequel to the actual film. I recall Paul Reiser's character telling Ripley something to the effect that they've lost contact with the collony or something. Maybe the game could be that colony.

Probably not since the opening text in the trailer Spike posted mentioned that the Sephora was sent as a result of what happened to the Sulaco and Hadley's Hope.   Hadley's Hope is the colony that Reiser's character mentioned that they lost contact with.

Presumably the meltdown of the reactors only damaged the colony, not outright destroyed it.

And the actor who played Pvt. Wierzbowski cries out with joy, and begins patting himself down with marine-camouflage pancake makeup...

...as he's done every night since 1986...

Quote:

Originally Posted by neoolong 

Probably not since the opening text in the trailer Spike posted mentioned that the Sephora was sent as a result of what happened to the Sulaco and Hadley's Hope.   Hadley's Hope is the colony that Reiser's character mentioned that they lost contact with.

Presumably the meltdown of the reactors only damaged the colony, not outright destroyed it.

Aye, which totally goes against that is said in the film,

"Four hours. With a blast radius of 30 kilometers; equal to about 40 megatons. "

or

"In nineteen minutes, this area's gonna be a cloud of vapor the size of Nebraska. "

But I guess Gear Box frowns upon that nitpicking and says: "do you want your fucking Aliens game or not?"

Oh Gear Box, you crazy Alien fan-boys who had a presentation at E3 that was by accounts, extremely cheesy (like eye rolling film quotes galore from Randy Pitchfork).

Jesus I feel like an asshole for typing that. Even more so for this next bit, I think I'd rather have had the Aliens RPG than this game.

Honestly, it feels kinda lazy to me.  They basically only needed to crib all the designs and stuff from the movies.  No need to design any other colonies or worlds.

But there are fans of Aliens who want to be able to play through the environments of the film. I'm sure there will be areas unseen in the movie as well.

HUH???

The entire area was VAPOURISED!!! 

"With a blast radius of 30 kilometers; equal to about 40 megatons. "
 

[S.L. Jackson]...Common sense, Motherfucker...DO YOU SPEAK IT?!....[/S.L. Jackson]...

Looks good I await the word on how it plays.

Quote:

Originally Posted by Graham 

HUH???

 

The entire area was VAPOURISED!!! 

 

"With a blast radius of 30 kilometers; equal to about 40 megatons. "
 

 

[S.L. Jackson]...Common sense, Motherfucker...DO YOU SPEAK IT?!....[/S.L. Jackson]...

 

Throw-away line in game "the resulting blast was not as severe as predicted"

Didn't we see the colony blow up in the movie?

If I'm asking for surprise and tension, then the Aliens license is a creative liability. Nothing I've seen or heard about this game hints that it'll be more than another QTE corridor shooter with monsters. And I really like Gearbox.

Maybe I'm burned out on sci-fi shooters after the disappointing Crysis 2, but I can't think of anything more dull than crawling through the boiler rooms of Hadley's Hope with xenomorphs.

     Quote:

Originally Posted by Alex Augustine 

But there are fans of Aliens who want to be able to play through the environments of the film. I'm sure there will be areas unseen in the movie as well.

It's doable, but it's severely execution-dependent. The recent Ghostbusters game allowed movie-fans to roam several of that film's environments and fight a number of the iconic baddies while still serving up a completely original story in the process...though, to be sure, that particular movie didn't end with a 40-megaton nuke going off, either.

I'm wondering exactly how gratuitiously-fanwanky this game's going to get, if it just turns the whole storyline into one giant, canon-breaking "Hadley's Hope" bugstomp-simulator, or else tries to do something that actually adds to the mythology, like Ghostbusters.

Quote:

Originally Posted by Alex Augustine 

But there are fans of Aliens who want to be able to play through the environments of the film.

I'm pretty sure they could have come up with an original location filled with just as many identical pipe-lined corridors.
 

Quote:

Originally Posted by JLassiter 

 

I'm pretty sure they could have come up with an original location filled with just as many identical pipe-lined corridors.
 

 

So you want an original location that is identical in all but name? gotcha.

I get the complaint about the story/location etc. but this only exists to rehash the movie in game form, so you'll probably need to be onboard from the beginning to get any enjoyment out of it.
 

You can be annoyed with me if you want, but sci-fi themed action games and shooters, of both First and Third person, have been pilfering from the Aliens aesthetic for years. Personally speaking I would rather see more original environments for Xenomorphs to rampage through.

Same here, but I'm still left wondering why anyone would want another Aliens game at all. Every non-Valve FPS from the last five years seems like it's either [JAMES CAMERON MOVIE] or fucking Saving Private Ryan, with Aliens copycats being the worst possible offenders.

I'm not annoyed but this is one game that will really be stealing from the Aliens aesthetic since its a direct sequel. Personally speaking, original environments didn't stop AVP3 from sucking ass.  If gearbox can deliver solid gameplay mechanics I'll be estatic but again this is coming from someone who wants to basically play through the movie. So now that we've discussed what we wish the game to be, hopefully we can talk about what it actually will be.

Quote:

Originally Posted by Trevor 

Same here, but I'm still left wondering why anyone would want another Aliens game at all. Every non-Valve FPS from the last five years seems like it's either [JAMES CAMERON MOVIE] or fucking Saving Private Ryan, with Aliens copycats being the worst possible offenders.

Well it should be differant from the Halo's and the Bulletstorms due to the fact that since it's an Aliens game, it will be more focused on atmosphere and horror rather than action.

However I am saying that with little knowledge of the Alien lore. As I've only seen Alien 3, I can't really say much on the topic. That being said, game looks solid. Gearbox know how to tell a story judging from Brothers in Arms series,so this should be interesting.

New game-play trailer...

...not fantastically impressed.

Oh, and from the FAQ...

But wasn't the Hadley's Hope colony destroyed by a nuclear explosion at the end of Aliens?
Gearbox explained that because the explosion from the atmosphere processor originated from ground level, the energy of the blast was focused into a narrow range, leaving most of the Hadley's Hope colony standing, albeit heavily damaged.

Doesn't explain what the FUCK the Sulaco is doing orbitting LV-426 again ('Well, after the fire, caused by the facehugger, protocols kicked in to bring the ship BACK to it's point of origin'-bullshit theory which is probably close to the truth)...or exactly WHO is hosting this new swarm of aliens (Hadley's Hope had a population of 157 so that's a maximum of 156 aliens...probably explained by RADIATION/ MUTATION from the Atmosphere Processor explosion...just NOT in great detail.)?

Randy Pitchford sounds EXACTLY like an asshole charactor from his own game...META!!

When it drops in price, I'm definitely picking it up. It's got the look of LV-426 down, even if it is just a generic shooter, and I loves me some Aliens.